Follow the money: In this sobering and well-researched chronicle, New York Times finance editor David Enrich investigates Germany-basedDeutsche Bank's long and troubled history, from its funding of Auschwitz to its close relationship with Donald Trump, who owed the company a staggering $350 million at the time of his election.

Why you might like it: In this incisive collection of essays, author Mikki Kendall draws on her own experiences as a black woman who has experienced poverty, racial discrimination, and violence to deliver an enlightening guide to embracing intersectionality.

Welcome to...Prague's Petschek Villa, built by Jewish banker Otto Petschek in the 1920s and home to U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic Norman Eisen nearly a century later.

What it's about: howthe palatial estate survived Nazi and Soviet occupation thanks to the residents who fought to save it from destruction.

Residents included: Rudolf Toussaint, the Nazi-hating German general who defied orders to burn Petschek Villa; Shirley Temple Black, who witnessed 1989's Velvet Revolution while serving as an ambassador.

What it is: an engaging history of Washington, D.C.'s Washington Monument, which took nearly 40 years to build and is, at 555 feet, the world's tallest stone structure (and the "tallest structure, by law," in the United States capital).

Did you know? In 1855, members of the nativist and anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party successfully halted the project for three years because Pope Pius IX had donated a commemorative stone to the construction efforts.

Don't miss: an entertaining micro-history of ancient Egypt's famous obelisks on which the Washington Monument is modeled.